Hybrid vehicles, battery electric vehicles, and other types of vehicles that use a battery for vehicle propulsion increasingly rely upon battery electronics for proper battery management and operation.
Battery electronics are oftentimes required to put in many hours of service in the field; sometimes, many more hours than is required of other electronic devices found in the vehicle. For example, a typical vehicle electronic module may see 8,000 hours of service over a 15 year period, while certain battery electronics may be required to put in 50,000 hours of service over the same amount of time. This type of increased demand can sometimes result in the battery electronics needing to be serviced or replaced at an accelerated rate.
In addition, certain battery electronics—such as sensors for monitoring battery voltage, current, temperature, etc.—are sometimes packaged and mounted within the actual battery pack. Thus, servicing and/or replacing such battery electronics can be difficult and expensive.